House of Mystery #172 (1968)
by Dick Wood & Frank Springer
Who asked for the return of Chief Mighty Arrow!?!?
A tornado is about to hit Smallville Littleville, so Robby hopes he’ll turn into a superhero that can help.
Instead he turns into Pendulum Man. How is he supposed to stop a tornado in that form?
That’s what I said!
At least he can turn himself into a living tornado.
You know, like all pendulums.
And it works!!! I make fun of Frank Springer’s artwork on Dazzler because… well it’s Dazzler… but he’s not a bad artist: this is a gorgeous panel that REALLY sells the action.
And then a meteor just happens to fall!
Little known fact: Littleville is both in the Tornado Alley and the lesser known Meteor Belt.
Pendulum Man REALLY looks like one of the Metal Men, but he must be far more resilient if he can survive THIS.
Having saved the city, Robby celebrates by going dancing with his love interest Susy.
At least I think it’s the same Suzy, she looks nothing like her.
Yes, how would Central City handle things without its own superhero?
As threatened promised by the cover, Robby turns into Chief Mighty Arrow again.
This happens just as one of Robby’s friends faints…
…but more importantly SUDDEN OCTOPUS!!!
Even jet-propelled feathers are enough to stop it. I sure hope they pack more of a punch than regular feathers!
The octopus escapes, and Robby barely has enough time to visit his friend…
…before another catastrophe happens. Don’t worry Robby, this is just normal for superheroes.
To deal with it, Robby transforms into Human Solar Mirror.
Robby’s friend transformed into THIS THING just as he used the H-Dial. So maybe it’s NOT standard superhero stuff.
“Luckily”, the monster flies straight towards the disaster Robby wanted to deal with.
In addition to flight, Human Solar Mirror has the power to… well his name is pretty self-explanatory.
You know I’m starting to think this is a crappy transformation. Even Night Girl’s weakness to sunlight isn’t THIS extreme!
Once Robby dials back into his regular body, this also changes back his friend.
So what exactly caused the H-Dial to transform another person? Because his friend was born on the same day as Robby!
Sounds legit.
Ah, of course, the click mechanism. Those things are always causing transformations.
Historical significance: 0/10
As you might have guessed, the idea that the H-Dial transforms other people if they are born the same day of the one dialing is never brought up again.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Not just the fact that being born the same day has that effect, but SOMEHOW Robby knows how to repair the H-Dial? WHAT!?
Does it stand the test of time?: 4/10
The story makes no sense and the transformations are uninspired, but the artwork is definitely a step up: I always got the impression that Jim Mooney wasn’t trying all that hard in this series.
Dial S for SOCKAMAGEE! : 87
Six uses of the catchphrase.
Dial I for superhero identities: 43
Adding Pendulum Man and Human Solar Mirror.
Dial U for most used identity: Chief Mighty Arrow joins Radar-Sonar Man and Giant Boy. They’ve all been used two times.
Dial C for the superpowers count: 63
Pendulum Man has super-speed and a metal body, both already in the count.
Chief Mighty Arrow doesn’t demonstrate any new powers from his previous appearance.
Human Solar Mirror can fly like most of the transformations, but does so by “converting the rays of the Sun into energy” and later concentrates sunlight into a laser… so I’m giving him light manipulation.
Interesting letters: enough with the weird theories, Walter knows how the H-Dial works!
Nice try, Tommy, but Walter said his explanation was the real one.
